House Oversight Committee Probes GAS Administrator Over Telework Allegations

Robin Carnahan, the then-nominee to be the General Services Administration administrator, testifies via video teleconference, during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington on June 10, 2021. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) is seeking answers from a Biden administration official for allegedly spending most of her work hours somewhere else, not in her Washington office.

It was one of several investigative moves the panel is pushing forward after GOP took control of the House, pledging tougher oversight of the Biden administration.

In a Jan. 11 letter (pdf) addressed to General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator Robin Carnahan, Comer asked about whistleblower reports alleging she worked remotely for most of her nearly two-year tenure.

“We have received whistleblower reports you have spent most of your time working in a location other than Washington D.C during your tenure as GSA administrator,” Comer wrote in a Jan. 11 letter, without detailing the allegations levied. “We are writing to determine whether these reports are accurate, and if so, understand the reason behind routine absences and whether they are in compliance with relevant regulations.”

Before being sworn into the agency that is responsible for managing federal office space, Carnahan vowed in 2021 to modernize government digital infrastructure and deemed it “a very big deal” for federal agencies to rethink their long-term office needs.

Comer requested Carnahan provide work-related records no later than Jan. 25, including her daily calendar, the number of days physically presenting in Washington, and travel reimbursement requests she has submitted to date as the GSA administrator.

Comer noted that Committee Republicans have expressed concerns that the broader federal workers have been slow to return to in-person work since President Joe Biden took office, despite the commander-in-chief claiming last March that “the vast majority” of them would work in person in the post-pandemic era.

The federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said in a 2022 survey that among 550,000 federal correspondents, 25 percent of employees said at that time they teleworked at least three days per week, while less than a third said they either preferred to or had to physically present on worksite, such as law enforcement officers, Transport Security Administration agents, border patrol agents, and security personnel.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) speaks during a House Oversight Committee hearing at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on Dec. 14, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“If the intent of President Biden’s statement was to encourage Americans to return to the office by leading by example, agency leadership must work in-person as well,” Comer said to Carnahan in his letter.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the GSA for comment.

SHOW UP Act

Comer also introduced a bill on Wednesday, called the SHOW UP Act, to prevent the Biden administration from cementing pandemic-era remote work policies for federal employees.

“For years, Americans have suffered from the federal government’s detrimental pandemic-era telework policies for federal bureaucrats. President Biden’s unnecessary expansion of telework crippled the ability of departments and agencies to fulfil their responsibilities and created cumbersome backlogs,” Comer said in a Wednesday press release.

“The federal government exists to serve the American people and these substantial delays for basic services are unacceptable,” the congressman added. He argued that expanding telework during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to massive backlogs and delayed critical assistance to veterans, tax refunds, passport applications, and other basic services.

If enacted, each federal agency will be forced to reinstate telework policies that were in place pre-pandemic within 30 days. It also calls for agency heads to submit individual studies in six months on “the impacts on the agency and its mission of expanding telework” and how such a move has affected performance.

Original co-sponsors of the bill include Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), and Michael Cloud (R-Texas).

Even if the measure is passed in the House, prospects of its passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate remain uncertain, given some Democrats’ enthusiasm for expanding telework for federal employees, arguing that the policy leads to higher productivity and employee satisfaction with less traffic and air pollution.

Last June, Reps. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) and John Sarbanes (D-Md.) reintroduced the Telework Metrics and Cost Savings Act, seeking to strengthen and expand the federal government’s telework programs. “This bill will help attract top talent to federal service—regardless of their location,” Connolly said that the time.

The proposed legislation would require the OPM to create data collection standards and report cost savings achieved through teleworking, regarding reduced absences, continuity of operations, reduced real estate and utility costs, and reduced community costs, among other cost savings measures.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Carnahan’s office for comment.